At WSU Vancouver, the Coffin Lab is conducting cutting-edge research on why people lose their hearing and how it might be restored.
We all know that standing too close to a speaker at a concert can cause hearing loss. Researchers in the Coffin Lab want to know why, and to develop drugs to prevent hearing damage.
Hearing is part of our connection to our loved ones, allowing us to converse with family and friends. That’s a big reason why preventing hearing loss is important. But sometimes, it’s too late. Many military veterans and people who have worked in noisy factories (or enjoyed too many concerts!) have already lost their hearing. Rather than preventing hearing loss, these people need a way to restore it—to regenerate their hearing cells.
The Coffin Lab at WSU Vancouver studies hearing loss. For most of the work, the Coffin Lab uses tiny zebrafish that are only six days old and the size of an eyelash. Zebrafish have hearing cells on the outside of their bodies that work just like the hearing cells in our ears. Researchers expose these fish to loud noise—the fish equivalent of a rock concert—then put the fish under the microscope to see how the noise damages their hearing cells. They can also add test drugs to the water and ask how these drugs prevent noise damage. Researchers can test dozens of drugs on the quest to find the right one, the drug that prevents damage to hearing cells without side effects.
Zebrafish might also hold the key to helping people who have already lost their hearing. Zebrafish can regrow their hearing cells, and people can’t. The Coffin Lab is working to understand the complex genetic changes that enable fish to regenerate their hearing. The goal is to apply what is learned in fish to regenerate human hearing someday.
You can help
Research takes a team, and it takes resources. In the Coffin Lab, that team (pictured above) includes faculty, graduate and undergraduate students, postdoctoral fellows, technicians and high school interns, all working together to understand hearing. Supporting the Coffin Lab provides direct support for the students in the lab, allowing them to learn advanced research techniques and to apply their knowledge to the quest for a cure for hearing loss.
WSU Vancouver needs to raise $10,000 more a year to allow further discoveries on hearing loss prevention and hearing restoration. You can support the Coffin Lab by making a gift and designating your gift to the Neuroscience Development Fund, or by contacting Lisa Abrahamsson at 360-546-9501.
You are welcome to visit the lab to learn more about hearing loss research. And always, protect your ears! ■